To be or not to be

politics

It is incredible how the meaning of ‘freedom’ has almost completely become ‘choice’. We have choices between Apple and Samsung, Suzuki and Enfield, Reebok and Nike and so on. But we have lost the freedom to talk, to explore, to wander. In the quest of owning means, we have forgotten or made to forget the abstract things of which they were means of. We are mindwashed into believing that owning the means of communication is what we really want. It doesn’t matter if you are really feel comfortable in communicating.

Probably I am wrong and having the choices is indeed more important than the old-fashioned freedom for which people gave their lives. Probably all they wanted was free markets and foreign investments when they hoisted the national flag for the first time. Probably they wished somewhere deep in their hearts that right winged leaders take up the mission of displacing and eradicating minorities in the name of development when they walked shoulder to shoulder without noticing the beard, the hairstyle, the turban, or the cross.

We are today flooded with ideas (and one of them is this). Ideas that tell us what we really want, what will really make us happy, what is really the right thing to do in some random situation in which you will probably never be in. But all these ideas really have one thing in common. They all come with a huge amount of self pity and regret. They talk about things that you should have done earlier, things you should do but can’t, things you never thought about doing but now you know you will never be able to either. But thank God you have your smartphone so you open social media so that the cycle of ideas and self pity can start again.

But if I am against right wing politics, free markets, foreign investments and choices, I should be prepared to be called as anti-national, communist, maoist, terrorist, sexist, dentist and other ists. Is it a co-incidence that the poorest societies in the world contain the most dangerous anti social elements while the most powerful ones are the rightful protectors of justice? How does every act of ‘humanity’ done by every government of the world somehow directly brings fortunes to the corporate world?

Who cares! Where is my smartphone? I need to be awake and google ‘how to fall asleep’.

Like this:

About a month back, I read a news article that the Supreme Court of India has said that Freedom of Speech cannot be absolute. Unable to decide if it was a right decision or not, my mind raced to the Charlie Hebdo attack. A few days after the attack, a local leader who looked frustrated by the world clamouring for an unknown bird called the freedom of speech, stated on television that there is a thin line between expressing an opinion and insulting an opinion and that line has to be respected.

Unable to believe myself, I was able to find some sense in both the above statements given by the apex court which has to be obeyed and the leader who makes his ends meet by playing the communal card.

Somewhere in between these two incidents, a funny thing happened in Indian entertainment industry. A ‘roast’ video was released by an Indian channel on YouTube. This was a genre very new to the Indian audience and though the inexperience of the makers was visible, the effort was praised by the masses for doing something new. However, the funny thing was that the “comic video made to make people laugh” was banned and taken down from the internet. The reason given by the authorities was that it had hateful, sexist, racist and obscene content. I emphasize here that I saw the complete video and yes it had abusive words but if X jokes about Y in front of Y and Y laughs it off, how can Z have a problem with that? This was the time when I realized that being a little creative can turn out to be disastrous in the world’s largest democracy.

I learnt to live with this fact and was at peace with the system when 2 notorious speeches by 2 notorious religious leaders came to my notice. In one of them, a leader of the minority challenged the Prime Minister to keep the police away for 15 minutes and then see how the minority shows that they are the real men. He continued by saying that the majority has given to this nation nothing but obscenity, refering to the caves of Ajanta and Ellora and erotic sculptures of Khajuraho.

The second video was the reply to this speech by the leader of a rival group who while addressing scores of people, found everything amusing and recalled the results of previous instances when the police was removed communal riots when thousands of innocent people from the minority were slaughtered.

Well, both of these videos are available on YouTube and all other websites and their views increase everyday and so is the hatred among the illiterate. I have a question from the unbiased government, the justice provider Supreme Court and all other guardians of peace and culture. I want to know where they are. How a comic video spread so many big negative words but hate speeches by influential people are totally acceptable? I also want to ask that gentleman who pointed out the difference between an insult and an opinion if he ever reads the newspaper. Each issue is filled with cartoons mocking our politicians. In which category does he put those cartoons? Or those speeches in the Parliament when opposition leaders call the former Prime Minister a ‘thief’. Are those “opinions” because his belief is not the one being talked about? Who is the one to decide if it is an insult or an opinion?

In a country where a teenager is arrested because of a Facebook update expressing remorse after the death of a politician because the roads would be jammed for his funeral, and a student body of IIT Madras (one of the finest institutes of the country) gets banned for publishing an article criticizing the Prime Minister; I have to think how is democracy different from dictatorship.

Is absoluteness of freedom of speech necessary for its survival or it is safe even with limits? This is the question whose answer I really need to know from everyone reading this post. Tell me what do you think.

This came in response to the Quote Challenge given by the wonderful blogger Kritika whose poetry and photography say much more than I could say here.